1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to agricultural harvesters, and, more specifically, to a harvester for removing crop from adjacent, closely spaced rows of plants.
2) Related Art
Harvesters such as cotton pickers include row units having upright picker drums with spindles projecting into a row receiving area to remove cotton from a row of plants. Harvesting very narrowly spaced rows of cotton has been a continuing source of difficulty. Cotton picker units such as shown in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,497 with picker drums supported in tandem on one side only of the row, or nested row harvesting units as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,403 have provided row harvesting capability for some narrow row spacings, but the reduction has not been sufficient to accommodate very narrowly spaced rows of fifteen inches or less. In some areas the rows may be spaced as closely as twelve inches (30 cm), and harvesting with conventional row units can result in substantial adjacent row plant damage and cotton loss.
In copending and commonly assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 09/322,453 entitled NARROW ROW COTTON HARVESTER and filed May 28, 1999, now U.S Pat. No. 6,212,864, a crop severing and conveying attachment is described for cutting a row of plants and moving the plants into an adjacent standing row prior to contact by a forward spindle drum. The cut plants intertwine with the standing row so the picking drums can remove cotton from both rows of plants. Although the attachment is capable of harvesting rows spaced apart fifteen inches or less, the cutter as shown therein is offset forwardly from the drums a considerable distance. The plants must be supported well to keep them upright as they move diagonally rearwardly into the adjacent standing row, and the system requires a relatively long belt conveyer and cutter drive system. The front of the attachment extends forwardly beyond the row unit thereby substantially increasing the operating length of the harvester.